The ubiquitous icosahedral B12 in boron chemistry
- 91 Downloads
- 11 Citations
Abstract
Though boranes exhibit a wide variety of polyhedral structures, all the three polymorphs of elemental boron essentially contain icosahedral B12 units as the predominant building block in their unit cell. Theoretical and experimental studies on boranes show that the icosahedral arrangement leads to most stable boranes and borane anions. This paper attempts to explain the phenomenal stability associated with the icosahedral B12 structure. Using fragment molecular orbital theory, the remarkable stability of B12H 12 2− amongcloso boranes are explained. The preferential selection icosahedral B12 unit by elemental boron is explained by improvising a contrived B84 sub-unit of the β-rhombohedron, the most stable polymorph. This also leads to a novel covalent way of stuffing fullerenes with icosahedral symmetry.
Keywords
Boron polyhedralcloso borane dianions icosahedral B12 β-rhombohedral polymorph orbital compatibilityPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
- Fleming I 1976Frontier orbitals and organic chemical reactions (New York: Wiley Inter Science)Google Scholar
- Fox M A and Wade K 1998 inThe borane, carborane, carbocation continuum: Part II (ed.) J Casanova (New York: John-Wiley and Sons Inc.) ch. 2Google Scholar
- Fukui K 1971Acc. Chem. Res. 4 272CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Grimes R N 1970Carboranes (New York: Academic Press)Google Scholar
- Hughes R E, Kennard C H L, Sullenger D H, Weakliem H A, Esands E E and Hoard J C 1963J. Am. Chem. Soc. 82 4427Google Scholar
- Jemmis E D 1982J. Am. Chem. Soc. 104 7017CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Jemmis E D and Kiran B 1996 inComputational chemistry—Reviews of current trends (ed.) J Leszczynski (London: World Scientific Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd) Vol. 1, ch. 5Google Scholar
- Jemmis E D and Kiran B 1994Curr. Sci. 66 766Google Scholar
- Jemmis E D and Schleyer P v R 1982J. Am. Chem. Soc. 104 4781CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Jemmis E D, Subramanian G and Radom L 1992J. Am. Chem. Soc. 114 1481CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Jemmis E D and van Kumar P N V 1984Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. (Chem. Sci.) 93 479Google Scholar
- Kroto H W, Heath J, O’Brien S C, Curl R F and Smalley R E 1985Nature (London) 242 1017Google Scholar
- Libscomb W N 1963Boron hydrides (New York: Benjamin)Google Scholar
- Muetterties E L 1975Boron hydride chemistry (New York: Academic Press)Google Scholar
- Schleyer P v R 1998 inThe borane, carborane, carbocation continuum: Part II (ed.) J Casanova (New York: John-Wiley and Sons Inc.) ch. 7Google Scholar
- Wells A F 1979Structural inorganic chemistry (London: Oxford University Press) ch. 24Google Scholar
- Williams R L 1998 inThe borane, carborane, carbocation continuum: Part II (ed.) J Casanova (New York: John-Wiley and Sons Inc.) ch. 1Google Scholar